But his casting as the newly-christened Ser Gendry Baratheon almost never happened. The actor revealed to Esquire that he originally auditioned to play Jon Snow before Kit Harington landed the role.

“I auditioned for the pilot. I had no idea what Game of Thrones was. Didn't get it. Kind of forgot about it,” he remembered. “Nobody knew it was going to become the biggest TV show on the planet at that point. It was just another audition.”

Dempsie later studied up on the show in order to audition twice more to play two different Night's Watch characters – only to be rejected once again by producers.

“[I] was convinced that they must just think I'm a terrible actor,” he joked. “Then Gendry came along and again I went along to the audition and I think it was three auditions I had.

HBO

“I had one in London, then one in Belfast where I met David [Benioff] and Dan [B. Weiss] for the first time. And then a final one where David and Dan were there again. And there was like four other producers in the room, too. And I was fairly convinced it was the worst audition I've ever given.”

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